By Emmanuel Adeleke
The Secretary-General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Muhammad Barkindo, is dead.
The Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, disclosed this via his verified Twitter handle, @MKKyari, in the early hours of Wednesday.
According to Kyari, Barkindo,63, died at about 11pm on Tuesday.
“We lost our esteemed Dr Muhammad Sanusi Barkindo. He died at about 11pm yesterday,5th July 2022. Certainly a great loss to his immediate family, the NNPC, our country Nigeria, the OPEC and the global energy community. Burial arrangements will be announced shortly,” Kyari wrote
Barkindo’s death occurred few hours after he was celebrated by President Muhammadu Buhari for his good service.
Barkindo’s tenure as OPEC Secretary-General would have ended on July 31.
Buhari had on Tuesday honoured Barkindo, describing him as a worthy ambassador of the country.
Reacting to Barkindo’s death, a former lawmaker in the eighth National Assembly, Senator Shehu Sani, said: “Muhammad Sanusi Barkindo, former GMD NNPC and until recently, @OPECSecretariat scribe, was honoured yesterday. He died 11pm yesternight. May Allah grant him Aljanna firdausi. Amin. That is the ephemerality and transience of life.”
